Time: Thu Mar 27 04:15:54 1997
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Date: Thu, 27 Mar 1997 04:13:59 -0800
To: liberty-and-justice@pobox.com
From: Paul Andrew Mitchell [address in tool bar]
Subject: L&J: Hmmmm, Hale Bopp's first victims?
Sorry. I don't think so. ;-(
/s/ Paul Mitchell
At 01:32 PM 3/27/97 -0500, you wrote:
>
>-> SearchNet's SNETNEWS Mailing List
>
>
>
>Mass Suicide Linked to Comet
>A California computer-cult whose members produced Internet sites died in a
>mass suicide. They may have timed their deaths to rendezvous with a UFO
>they believed was traveling behind the Hale-Bopp comet, a source said
>today. Thirty-nine bodies were found.
>========
>39 Cult Members May Have Timed Suicide With Comet
> The mysterious computer-cult whose members died in a mass suicide left
>a videotape announcing their plans and may have timed their deaths to the
>approach of the Hale-Bopp comet, a source said. The 39 men and women sent a
>farewell videotape to a former member and died in their rented California
>mansion, lying in apparent peace on their backs, each covered across the
>face and chest with a triangular shroud of purple cloth. Full Story
>========
>RANCHO SANTA FE, Calif. (AP) -- The mysterious computer-cult whose members
>died in a mass suicide left videotapes announcing their plans and may have
>timed their deaths to the approach of the Hale-Bopp comet, an associate of
>a former member said today. The 39 men and women dressed in black, wore
>their hair in buzz cuts and lived -- dozens of them -- in an antiseptic,
>million-dollar mansion stocked with bulk food and computer hardware used to
>create Internet sites. They sent a farewell videotape to a former member
>and died in the same mansion, lying in apparent peace on their backs, arms
>at their sides, each covered across the face and chest with a triangular
>shroud of purple cloth. Sheriff's deputies who went to the Spanish-style
>mansion on a tip Wednesday found the victims of one of the biggest mass
>suicides in U.S. history. Other than the bodies, they found little but
>mystery. ``There's no gunshot wounds, there's no knife holes in anybody,''
>said San Diego County Sheriff's Cmdr. Alan Fulmer. ``Nothing to my
>knowledge has been found in the way of poison.'' The home apparently was
>the center of a thriving business designing Web pages for businesses that
>want a presence on the Internet. Customers of the company called Higher
>Source described the home's occupants as cultlike and clannish, but
>businesslike and proficient. Nick Matzorkis, a Beverly Hills businessman
>who employs a former member of the Higher Source group, said today that
>members sent the employee -- whom he identified only as Rio -- two
>videotapes this week that described their intentions. He told NBC's
>``Today'' show that it was his understanding that they died Monday and used
>sleeping pills to kill themselves. Members believed it was time to ``shed
>their containers,'' perhaps to rendezvous with a UFO they believed was
>traveling behind the Hale-Bopp comet, Matzorkis said. The comet is
>currently visible from Earth.
>
> Rio received the videotapes by mail Tuesday
>evening, Matzorkis said, and Rio discussed them with Matzorkis on Wednesday.
> One video was of the group's elderly male
>leader, he said. The other contained each member's taped farewells.
> Matzorkis told ABC's ``Good Morning America''
>that they went to the house and Rio went in and found the bodies.
> ``When he came out he was as white as a sheet.
>... At that point no one else in the world essentially knew this had taken
>place,''
> Matzorkis told ABC. He said they then notified
>police.
> A Website that ``Today'' said was apparently
>designed by Higher Source described the group's desire to leave Earth and
> rendezvous with a spaceship behind the
>Hale-Bopp comet.
> ``The joy is that our Older Member in the
>Evolutionary Level above human (the `Kingdom of Heaven') has made it clear
>to us
> that Hale-Bopp's approach is the `marker' we've
>been waiting for. ... Our 22 years of classroom here on planet Earth is
>finally
> coming to conclusion -- `graduation' from the
>Human Evolutionary Level. We are happily prepared to leave `this world'
and go
> with Ti's crew,'' the Heaven's Gate Website
>reads.
> However, there was no information on the
>Heaven's Gate Website that connected it to the Higher Source group. There
is a
> separate Website under the Higher Source name.
>The Heaven's Gate Website said suicide was unacceptable for people who
> were not part of the group but was an
>acceptable way for members to ascend to a higher level of life.
> Overnight, investigators searched the house and
>refrigerated vans from the coroner's office stood by. One of the vans,
>which is
> capable of holding 20 bodies, pulled away from
>the home about 5:15 a.m. and arrived at the morgue in San Diego an hour and
> a half later. Authorities would not immediately
>confirm whether there were bodies in it.
> Members of the cult told the landlord, Sam
>Koutchesfahani, that they were sent to Earth as angels and met in ``middle
> America,'' Milt Silverman, Koutchesfahani's
>attorney, told San Diego radio station KFMB.
> Members also said the group has branches in
>Arizona and New Mexico, Silverman said. He didn't elaborate. In Santa Fe,
> N.M., police Sgt. Jerry Archuleta said one car
>parked outside the house was registered to a mailbox there, and authorities
> knew of no cult branch there.
> Silverman told CBS' ``This Morning'' that the
>group had previously rented from a couple who were doctors and came with
> good references. ``They seemed to be perfectly
>reasonable people, always paid their rent on time,'' he said.
> Tom Goodspeed, director of the San Diego Polo
>Club, said Higher Source designed a Web page for the club. He visited the
> house and described quiet men with buzz-cut
>hair and stylish, collarless black shirts.
> ``They had that look about them that maybe they
>were a little bit strange of appearance, but that they could probably sit
down
> in front of a computer and really get it
>done,'' Goodspeed told ABC's ``Nightline.'' ``They did a fantastic job for
>us.''
> Goodspeed was one of several visitors who
>thought of Higher Source as a cult. He and others said the group appeared to
> answer to an older man known as ``Father
>John,'' and that a ``Brother Logan'' appeared to be a second in command.
> Bill Grivas of nearby Solana Beach said he
>looked at the home as a potential buyer and heard them referring to
>themselves as
> monks.
> The Higher Source Website is adorned with
>pictures of stars and nebulae, but appears largely a straightforward
>business site,
> touting the company's abilities and listing
>satisfied customers.
> ``The individuals at the core of our group have
>worked closely together for over 20 years,'' boasts one entry on the site.
>``We
> try to stay positive in every circumstance and
>put the good of a project above any personal concerns or artistic egos.''
> The age of the victims and the neighborhood in
>which it took place fit the profile of modern cult activity, said Ronald E.
>Enroth,
> a professor at Westmont College in Santa
>Barbara, Calif., and a leading expert on new religious movements.
> The case began Wednesday with a pair of
>anonymous calls -- one to the San Diego Sheriff's Department and one somewhat
> later to Beverly Hills police. Both suggested
>checking the house in this wealthy enclave of walled estates and polo
>fields in the
> rolling hills 20 miles north of San Diego.
> A deputy made his way up the steep, gated
>drive, went in an open door and found 10 bodies in a room. More deputies
>arrived,
> wearing surgical masks against the putrid odor
>of decaying bodies.
> Fulmer said at first that all 39 victims were
>male between 18 and 24. He later said some were women and some were older,
but
> was unable to provide further detail.
> The smell was so bad that officers at first
>thought it might be poison gas. Later, Fulmer said it was the smell of
>death, bad
> enough to indicate the victims had been dead
>for some time.
> There were no marks on the bodies and no
>suicide notes, Fulmer said. The bodies were lying on cots and bunks
>throughout the
> house, each with a 3-foot triangular purple
>cloth lying over the face and chest.
> Investigators discovered that the home had been
>rented in October. The nine-bedroom, seven-bathroom house sits on 3.11
> acres with a swimming pool and tennis court. It
>was valued at $1.325 million in 1995.
> In Washington today, Attorney General Janet
>Reno said there was no immediate indication that a federal crime had been
> committed, but the FBI was monitoring the
>situation and was ready to help local authorities if needed.
> Koutchesfahani, the landlord, pleaded guilty
>last year to tax evasion and fraud after admitting he took up to $350,000
from
> Middle Eastern students between 1989 and 1995.
> Prosecutors said Koutchesfahani used the money
>to bribe college instructors at three San Diego-area colleges into illegally
> enrolling students into the schools and
>certifying them as California residents.
> On April 19, 1993, Branch Davidian leader David
>Koresh and 80 followers -- including 18 children -- died by fire or gunfire,
> six hours after the FBI started filling their
>cult compound near Waco, Texas, with tear gas. The government called the
>deaths a
> mass suicide after a 51-day armed standoff.
>
>
>
>
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Paul Andrew, Mitchell, B.A., M.S. : Counselor at Law, federal witness
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